In most urban areas, wastewater from households, facilities and businesses is discharged through wastewater pipes to treatment plants. These collect wastewater from many premises through a network of underground wastewater pipes. Wastewater is then treated at treatment plants around the region.
ORC’s compliance team monitors local authority plants in the Waitaki, Clutha, Dunedin, Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago districts to ensure compliance for 31 reticulated treatment plants.
In total we monitor 86 resource consents for wastewater treatment occurring in towns and centres throughout Otago. These include 55 main discharge consents and 31 other consents.
Operational decisions on how the plants are operated day to day, maintained and staffed are made by the local authority as consent holder, not by the Otago Regional Council.
| Territorial Local Authority | Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP) operated |
Main discharge consents held |
|---|---|---|
| Central Otago District Council (CODC) | 7 | 11 |
| Clutha District Council (CDC) | 11 | 14 |
| Dunedin City Council (DCC) | 6 | 13 |
| Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) | 4 | 11* |
| Waitaki District Council (WDC) | 3 | 6 |
| Total | 31 | 55 |
In general, the treatment plants have the following types of discharge consents:
- Discharge to Air (Odour);
- Discharge to Water;
- Discharge to Land; or
- Discharge to Coastal Marine Area
The age and expiry dates for the resource consents vary across the region. The conditions for each consent also vary, because of the type of system or the environment the plant is located in.
Monitoring compliance with wastewater consents is prioritised in the ORC Compliance Plan 2023-2026, which says councils need to “reduce non-compliant discharges to improve freshwater quality” taking a “proactive and integrated approach to monitoring largescale activities.”
Wastewater treatment plants run by councils are generally audited annually, and some visited regularly between the audits depending on the compliance status of the consents and whether compliance with abatement notices has been met.
Regular reporting on the compliance status of these plants has been provided through to Council’s Committees and have been made publicly available.
The latest summary of the compliance of Territorial Local Authority (TLA) wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and the actions that have been taken by Council to achieve compliance can be found here in the Regional Leadership Committee Agenda - April 2025 below. This report covers the period 1 April 2023 to 31 December 2024 inclusive.
Where non compliances are serious Council has the option to take enforcement action under the RMA. In the last reporting period enforcement action included:
| TLA | Infringement notices issued April 2023 to December 2024 |
Current abatement notices | Abatement notices cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|
| CDC | 11 | 5 | 6 |
| CODC | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| DCC | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| QLDC | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| WDC | 5 | 4 | 0 |
More information on the Shotover Wastewater Plant and the enforcement action taken can be found on compliance page:
